1. Field
The invention relates to an electronic input device, such as a touchscreen keyboard, for inputting characters of pictographic languages, such as written Chinese.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various electronic devices have been developed to process information. Among other such electronic devices, computers and electronic devices having computing capabilities often interface with a user via an input device. Where a language used by the user has an alphabet-based writing system (for example, English), the language can be inputted into the electronic device, using a limited number of letters. Thus, an input device for the electronic device only needs to have a limited number of keys corresponding to the letters. The QWERTY keyboard is one example of an input device for a language having alphabet-based writing system.
Certain languages, however, have a pictographic writing system. A pictographic writing system typically includes a large number of characters, each of which is a word and can have a specific phonetic sound. In addition, two or more characters may be combined to comprise a unique third word. For example, the written Chinese language is well-known to be a pictographic writing system. It is estimated that about 7,000 or more characters are used by a well-educated Chinese writer and reader.
The number and complexity of the characters in a pictographic language present significant challenges for input devices used to input these characters. There is no “alphabet” as each character denotes a unique word or words. Some input devices or systems for pictographic languages use a standard QWERTY keyboard with symbols or characters assigned to the individual keys of the QWERTY keyboard. For written Chinese, input systems typically involve inputting characters based on pronunciation of the word (for example, “sounding out the word”), character strokes, character structure/radicals/roots, or combinations thereof. Examples of such input systems include “Pinyin,” “Wubi,” “Bopomofo,” “Dayi,” and “Cangjie.”
Such conventional input devices or systems for a pictographic language can be effective with users having familiarity with the language, for example, native speakers. However, non-speakers and students learning the language typically face difficulties in using such devices or systems. Thus, there is an on-going need to provide an input device or system that can be effectively used by both non-speakers and those learning a pictographic language as well as native speakers.